Stage Five (2017)

​After claiming a mysterious voice has informed her of her pending death, a young woman recalls her last moments on Earth.

Mike's latest film, which he wrote and directed, will be premiering at the North Hollywood Cinefest in March 2017. More information coming soon!

﻿Gala (2015)﻿

Mike and his team of collaborators successfully funded the short film "Gala" on Kickstarter. Learn more about the project, cast and crew here! And check out the the final film on Vimeo!

...and the trailer over there -------->

“Gala” centers on a lonely writer on the night of his high school reunion. Though so far unsuccessful at getting his ‘big break’, his ex-girlfriend Faye has become an up-and-coming actress in Los Angeles. After being apart for two years, the writer imagines what it will be like to face his former love, realizing that their aspirations for fame and success have left one of them behind. Ultimately a story about image and perception, “Gala” mixes dreams with reality to create a surreal film about the boundaries of the imagination.

﻿The Gate Agent (2013)﻿

A story about a man who awakens in an unknown room with a woman who identifies herself as The Gate Agent, the film is a surrealistic story about both acceptance and redemption.

In December 2012, Mike formed a team of actors and crew members, led by Director Damiano Fusca to produce the 15-minute short film in Pittsburgh, PA. The SAG-AFTRA film premiered at the Pittsburgh Independent Film Festival in June, 2013 and in New York City later that month. It was last seen at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership's "Downtown Film Night" on October 12, 2013, and the Gotham Film Festival in 2014.

In July 2014, Mike put a team of folks to compete in Pittsburgh's "48 Hour Film Contest", an international competition where filmmakers are given exactly two days to conceptualize, write, shoot and edit a short film. The rules are simple: each team (47 participated in the Pittsburgh competition this year) was randomly assigned a genre, a prop, a line of dialogue to use in their film. Mike's team ("The Mezzanines") was assigned 'drama', and were given the following:Character: Victor or Victoria, a human statue; Line of Dialogue: "I am not at all surprised"; Prop: A Ticket.From there, Mike's exhausted team completed their short film "Horizon" in two days, temporarily living on nothing but coffee and donuts, as they edited into the wee-hours of the morning. The film was screened at the Hollywood Theater in Pittsburgh on July 18, 2014 with 11 other films.

Lemon Drops (2012)

_The owner of a small communications firm brings his chief employees to an emergency meeting upon discovering possible fraud within the company. As the truth begins to unravel, he suspects someone in the room might be the one responsible. Lies can only go so far, silence can only last so long.Lemon Drops takes place in the gritty world of marketing and public relations, where anyone is likely to sell out a friend or colleague in order to save his or her own neck. As a person who has worked in marketing, writer/producer Mike Smith wanted to highlight the tense environment that exists in businesses large and small across the country. As industries become more competitive as a result of downsizing and smaller budgets, ‘bending the rules’ may become more of the norm than the exception. Lemon Drops highlights this – focusing on one small firm that has to choose between abiding by its own established ethics, or falling victim to the tactics it pretends to condemn.

Additionally, in July 2013, Mike wrote the short film "One Last Slide", which was chosen as part of the Carnegie Museum's "Two Minute Film Festival". His completely absurd "The Condiment Test" was made in about an hour and somehow picked as a finalist in the Pittsburgh Filmmakers' "Ketchup Film Contest" in June 2013.